Qualla: National Airlines Flight 16

National Airlines Flight 16: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Lockheed Lodestar was already an hour and fifteen minutes late when it lifted off from Miami on the evening of October 4, 1945. Flight 16 was a milk run -- the kind of short-hop, multi-stop route that knit Florida's young airline network together -- threading from Miami up the Gulf Coast through Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Tampa before terminating at Lakeland. Captain William Merrill Corry and First Officer William Hawley Conrad had more than 10,000 hours of flight time between them. The Lodestar, a twin-engine workhorse originally built for the Army Air Corps in 1942, had been leased to National Airlines and was performing without fault. Nothing about the flight suggested anything unusual. But just before 1:00 a.m. on October 5, seven miles out from Lakeland, Corry began a straight-in descent through scattered clouds -- and in the seconds that followed, a single moment of hesitation would send the aircraft skipping across the dark surface of Lake Parker.

National Airlines Flight 16: A Wartime Machine on a Peacetime Route

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Lockheed 18-50 Lodestar that serviced Flight 16 was one of only 13 of its specific variant ever built, out of a total production run of 625 Lodestars. Manufactured in 1942 for the US Army Air Corps, it had accumulated 1,798 hours of airtime, with 628 since its last overhaul. ...

National Airlines Flight 16: Into the Unexpected Cloud

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Lakeland's weather report that night was reassuring: nine miles of visibility with scattered clouds. Captain Corry, with 4,800 total flight hours and 851 on the Lodestar type, set up for a straight-in approach to the northeastern runway. First Officer Conrad, who had even more to...

National Airlines Flight 16: Bellyflop on Lake Parker

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Witnesses on the ground watched the Lodestar continue past the end of the runway, flying level at low altitude. The aircraft cleared the runway boundary but kept descending, striking the surface of Lake Parker in what the Civil Aeronautics Board later described as a level bellyfl...

National Airlines Flight 16: The Cost of Hesitation

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Civil Aeronautics Board investigators sifted through the wreckage and found no mechanical failure, no engine trouble, no structural defect. The aircraft had been airworthy. The weather, while imperfect, had been manageable. The conclusion was stark: Captain Corry, unfamiliar with...

National Airlines Flight 16: The Lake Remembers

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Lake Parker still borders Lakeland Linder International Airport, and pilots landing on the northeastern runway today follow approaches not dramatically different in geometry from the one Captain Corry attempted eighty years ago. The lake is a popular fishing and recreation spot, ...